Cold War Pales In Comparison To Multifaceted Threats From China

U.S. government and military officials are warning of China's increased military buildup, satellite capabilities, and government-sponsored hacking activity taking place against American targets, with one official stating that the current threat posed by Xi Jinping's communist regime exceeds what occurred during the Cold War.

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stated, "Frankly, the Cold War pales in comparison to the multifaceted challenges that China presents. It's not just the military challenges. It's across the board. It's in the Global South. It is in technology."

Campbell noted that China and Russia are working hand in hand to bolster each other's military capabilities. In return for China's "substantial support" of Russia's military industry, including supporting its drone capabilities in its ongoing war in Ukraine, Putin is reportedly supplying Xi with submarine and missile technology.

Campbell urged the U.S. to keep a bipartisan focus on substantially stepping up its naval capabilities in light of China's vast military buildup, saying that increasing the speed of designing and building U.S. warships is "the most important thing that we need to do over the course of the next 10 years."

As the total number of Chinese warships surpasses the total of the U.S. fleet, a new intelligence report from the Space Force has revealed that the communist regime has now deployed 970 satellites that are capable of supporting attacks on "U.S. aircraft carriers, expeditionary forces and air wings during a conflict." The report detailed that 20 of the satellites were launched between March and June and are designed to facilitate "long-range precision strikes against U.S. and allied forces."

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned on Monday that due to China's continued military buildup in space, "the likelihood of war in the Pacific is increasing and will continue to do so."

In light of the threats, Republican congressmen are urging the Biden-Harris administration to protect land around U.S. military installations from being snapped up by Chinese entities. On Tuesday, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushing for U.S. Coast Guard facilities to be included in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' (CFIUS) list of sensitive areas. Murphy noted that they are also pushing for "National Laboratories, some ports, and critical telecom & energy infrastructure" to be protected.

"Xi Jinping would never allow Americans to buy land next to sensitive Chinese bases," stated Moolenaar. "Unfortunately, current U.S. policy all too often rolls out the red carpet for CCP land purchases. We must more effectively use CFIUS to stop our foremost adversary from purchasing US land, particularly CCP-aligned entities like Gotion, which wants to set up shop in my home state."

Meanwhile, attacks on U.S. institutions continue to mount in the form of China-sponsored hackers. During remarks Wednesday at a cybersecurity conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray detailed how the Flax Typhoon hacking group recently posed as an information security company and targeted government agencies, media organizations, and universities in order to obtain intelligence and conduct reconnaissance. During the attack, more than 126,000 American internet-connected devices such as cameras, video recorders, and storage devices were compromised.

While Wray praised the actions of federal cybersecurity officials for neutralizing the incursion, he warned that continued attacks from the communist regime will continue. "[M]ake no mistake: It is just one round in a much longer fight," he emphasized. "The Chinese government is going to continue to target your organizations and our critical infrastructure, either by their own hand or concealed through their proxies. And we're going to continue to work with our partners to identify their malicious activity, disrupt their hacking campaigns and bring them to light."

China experts are also warning about another cyberthreat posed by the communist regime as the November elections approach: the carrying out of election interference operations. An article published last week by Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow Gordon Chang details how China is conducting an interference operation "on a larger scale than Russia." According to former U.S. counterintelligence official Kerry Gershaneck, a group called "Spamouflage" is "impersonating U.S. voters to denigrate U.S. politicians and push divisive messages ahead of the November 5 election."

Through accounts on X, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the group posted on "topics including reproductive rights and homelessness and geopolitical issues such as America's backing for Ukraine and Israel" and also targeted President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump. Chang noted that "Spamouflage achieved its greatest success on TikTok," citing a Wall Street Journal report which found "TikTok pushing thousands of videos with political lies and hyperbole to its users."

Chang went on to note that while the Biden-Harris administration has recently taken action to counteract Russian election interference operations, there have been "no indictments or other actions by the Justice department, Treasury, or State against the Chinese regime for election-interference offenses."

Originally published at The Washington Stand